Find out who Georgia’s Environmental Champions are – and who has work to do.
Georgia is at a turning point and must focus now on two critical issues: combating climate change and defending democracy. Georgians are already experiencing the effects of climate change, as evidenced by the increase in severe storms and natural disasters across the state. 2023 was the hottest year on record. If we do not act now, temperatures will continue to rise, and the state will experience more severe weather events. We know that Georgians living on low incomes or in communities of color across the state disproportionately feel these effects. This moment calls for clarity, and Georgia Conservation Voters is answering that call by providing a scorecard that shows how legislators voted on key bills impacting our environment, energy grid, democracy, and environmental justice.
The Scorecard, covering the 2023-2024 Legislative Sessions, evaluates how legislators voted on critical environmental and democracy issues throughout the two-year legislative session and is available for download. The thorough review identifies the most impactful bills taken up by the legislature and how each district’s elected representatives voted. Two representatives received a perfect score: Rep. Lisa Campbell (D-35) and Rep. Becky Evans (D-89). Eleven lawmakers, six Democrats and five Republicans, were awarded “honorable mentions” for going above and beyond to support an important piece of environmental legislation.
Our champions pushed forward legislation that would benefit millions of Georgians. For example, State Senator Josh McLaurin called on the Public Service Commission to protect millions of Georgians from unjustly paying for construction mistakes, delays, and work corrections on the Vogtle Nuclear Plant. Over the last three years, the average ratepayer’s monthly bill has gone up by $45. That’s $540 a year, and the disastrous construction of Plant Vogtle is a big reason for those skyrocketing bills.
Representative Beth Camp introduced the Georgia Homegrown Solar Act of 2024 which would have allowed homeowners and business owners to subscribe to a portion of a large utility-scale solar farm and have the energy produced from their portion credited to their bill. And Representative Karla Drenner introduced House Bill 495, which would identify overburdened communities with a history of pollution, create a regulatory body to ensure actions are taken to mitigate health hazards, and create a new process for obtaining specific permits.
Protecting Georgians from financial abuse and strengthening our infrastructure against the onslaught of climate change should be a nonpartisan issue, and we’re proud of all those elected officials who acted on that understanding. Unfortunately, there are others who played politics with our democracy, our health, and our bank accounts.
One of the most consequential bills was HB 1312 – which unconstitutionally extended the terms of the Public Service Commission (PSC). By not providing timely elections for the PSC, the State Legislature allowed anti-clean energy commissioners in unelected seats to approve the largest rate increases in Georgia history. Jesús Rubio, Government Affairs Manager for Georgia Conservation Voters, characterized the legislation in blunt terms. “It’s blatantly unconstitutional. It hurts Georgia’s democracy, and it protects commissioners who have, time and again, bent to Georgia Power’s will and approved every rate increase the company has requested.”
Major federal investments in the clean energy industry, resulting in more than 30,000 new jobs, represent progress. However, if Georgia’s state leadership does not commit to a clean, renewable energy future, they will expose residents to billions of dollars in preventable damages as the impacts of climate change increase in the next twenty years. GCV recognizes that the jobs of legislators are not easy, and active lobbying and spreading of misinformation from the fossil fuel industry makes it difficult to understand which bills are good and which bills are bad. The scorecard is just one of many accountability tools and one way to measure environmental champions. GCV acknowledges that it does not present the full picture of who our climate champions in the state are. That’s why there’s a section to highlight legislators who went above and beyond for the environment to sponsor legislation. GCV has also provided an action constituents take to contact their representatives and urge them to review their scores and commit to 100% clean energy by 2050.